The brain module for my dealer installed alarm seems to be doing something weird to keep my car from starting. It started out with the alarm just acting funny, not wanting to arm/disarm even though the remote seemed fine. So I stopped using it. But then all of a sudden my car wouldn't start sometimes and I would get a wierd buzzing from behind the dash.

So I ripped out some dash panels and found it was the main alarm module with all the wiring running into it that was making the buzzing noise. The noise only happens when I turn the key over completely to start it, not in run or acc. It's happening about 95% of the time now, I can hardly ever start my car.

I'm wondering if anybody has seen this happen before, and if I can just pull all the wiring pertaining to the starting circuit on my alarm? The VATS seems to be fully intact and functional, will I run into any problems with that since the alarm AND vats both have starter disabling features?

Any thoughts on this would be great

 

in the alarm wiring there should be a relay with 4 wires coming out , two of them should be thicker , usally a black and a green , you can either change the relay ,or check the wires for good connection , the 2 thick wires are just your starter wire cut in half , there should be an ignition ,usally yellow and a grounded while armed which is usally orange . i would also check the main ground for the alarm , whenever u get a half working ,funky, dose things when it wants alarm its usally the main ground , it might have sufficiant ground for some things but not others . worst case u rip out the alarm and just rehook up the starter wire .

 

thanks for replying, thats gonna help me out

i've been thinking about ripping it out already

i'll write down all this info you threw at me and get to checkin it all out tommorow, especially the grounds. If that doesn't check out then I'm fed up with this alarm on top of all the other problems I've had lately. I'll proceed to start ripping it out and getting the alarm out of the ignition to starter loop.

I'll probably end up ripping this whole damn alarm whenever I get the time, it's getting old and all the problems are pointing to a new system later. First the shock sensors stopped working, then the arm/disarm fiasco, now this. Are the Haynes wiring diagram's good enough for me to assemble the stock wiring back together?

 

all the alarm wires usally are piggybacked onto the original wires the only cut wire is the starter wire , the ground should fix the problem but if not i coach u through removing it

 

thanks alot, imma go clean up the ground and add a new star washer into the mix, and inspect for anything looking like its hanging by a thread, if i don't get it fixed i'll report back

 

well, i got it all ripped out, once i was under there the labeling on the module and the little "leech" connectors they used (the kind that just slice through the insulation and touch the wire inside, i hate those) showed me a clear path. the alarm is all out except the siren itself, which i may hook up to a switch, lol.

I have the thick yellow wire back together for my starter, but the buzzing and clicking was still there. so i get to investigating and i find that its this relay:


i think thats my starter enable relay socket, am i correct? heres the relay that was connected to it, i think this is the culprit:


it has four wires going into it, two of which match the color of the starting circuit, the other two i'm thinking is part of VATS to enable the starter, but I can't find wiring diagrams to confirm. the thing was burnt on the middle contact, but thats the only contact that has nothing going to it. there is no wire pinned to the middle socket, i looked around and couldn't find one loose either. so i don't know whats up with that. any thoughts?

i'm going to try swapping out this relay.

 

swapping the relay gave me no results, but it IS this relay that is clicking it's *** off. clicking so much that sometimes it sounds like a buzz. The wiring going to it seems fine though.

Any ideas on the relay clicking so much and so fast?

edit: after alot of fooling around and tracking wires i think i've found the culprit. i think it's the wire in my ignition column that reads the resistance of the pellet in my key. i'm in the process of pulling my wheel to further investigate.

 

I'm still totally stumped on this thing. I pulled the wheel but I didn't have the two other tools I need to get my tilt column broken down all the way so I couldn't get in.

So I bypassed the VATS passkey to eliminate the wiring in the column by popping the resistor out of my spare key and soldering a jumper wire to each side. Then I covered it in liquid electrical insulation and put it into the passkey connector at the base of the column. The resistance measures the same as my original key, and it seems to work fine, but I still get no start.

My alarm is all out of the way, I chopped everything out of there and spliced my starter wire back together with a dual ended crimp connector.

My clutch start switch seems okay, the relay won't click unless I have the clutch depressed.

I get power to everything else on the car. But when I put it in accessory and turned the radio on to see if it would work, my stereo would clip out once it got to moderate volume.

The starter enable relay is still clicking with the new one and another one I swapped in, it seems to work, but getting no response from the starter. When it DOES crank (1 in 100 times now) it fires right up like theres no problem at all. It also would not turn over when I jumpered the yellow wire directly to the dark green wire and put the key in the run position. I tried this both with the bypass AND with my original key.

I grounded my diagnostic terminal and now I have a code 46, which I never had before. But I think that's just from me trying to fire it with the blank key without the VATS bypass hooked up (to see if the security light would come on)

Any suggestions from any of the wiring guru's here would be much appreciated. My car has been dead in the water for about 6 months out of the year now, it's starting to drive me crazy.

 

ok first try and test the starter wire to see if it goes positive during crank , if it dose the check it at the starter itself . you might have a bad key cylinder , u can also put the key in the run position and put 12 volts the the starter wire with the cluth pressed down . i think that might be your problem

 

So you're saying I might still have a bad key cylinder even though I bypassed the passkey decoder and my starter relay? I got no crank with either of those situations. I hope not, because then I have to wait until I get paid to buy some tools.

I'll go out and check if I get 12v while cranking to the yellow wire under the dash first thing in the morning. Then I'll check for voltage under the car and try to jump the starter.

 

I'm having a problem with my VATS module and starting. The security light indicates proper function, but its not supplying a good ground signal to my starter enable relay. I ended up directly grounding the relay signal wire (yellow/black stripe on mine) that is supposed to go to the VATS and now the car starts and runs fine. Might be something to try before you rip your steering column apart.

 

I ripped the relay and jumpered the dark green to the yellow (main power to starter) and got no crank at all. So I'm going to try what you said, and ground the yellow/black wire, I HOPE it works! Thanks alot for your reply.